This invention relates to warehousing systems, and, more specifically, to an improved warehousing system wherein orders are manually filled.
Prior art of possible relevance includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,554,391 to Goodell; 2,391,287 to Anchor; and 3,246,722 to Morrice.
Warehousing systems for maintaining inventories of a variety of materials which are manually retrieved when needed have long been known. However, many such systems are extremely inefficient. Frequently, the person filling the order may be required to move to a storage area for a given material, retrieve the same, and return with it to a point of distribution. Since every such retrieval is in effect a "round trip" effort, considerable time is expended in moving to and from the distribution point. Even where the person filling the order retrieves more than one type of material during his trip to the storage area, the process is inefficient and is limited by the number of materials the person may adequately handle during a trip, whether or not a cart or the like is employed.
The inefficiency is further compounded in many systems when the supply of a given material has been exhausted. When such occurs, the storage area for that material will be replenished with the material, but in the meantime, orders for that material cannot be filled. Moreover, refilling of the supply of given materials that has been exhausted frequently results in the introduction of another person and/or apparatus into the warehousing area in such a way that free movement of the person filling the order is obstructed by such other person and/or apparatus. Consequently, time is frequently wasted by the person filling orders in waiting for the person replenishing the supply of an exhausted material to fulfill that duty before another order can be filled.